Virtual hierarchical layer patterning

Identifying the interactions of a selected cell across a hierarchical diagram of an integrated circuit and mapping the ways in which the cell can interact with other structures in the hierarchy reduces the computational load for design rule checking (DRC) and design rules for manufacturing (DRM). To this end, a cell and multiple instances of the cell are identified within hierarchical design levels of the chip. The interactions between the cell and other cells within the hierarchy are subtracted from the cell boundary, and the results of the subtracting are merged in the cell boundary. By subtracting the results of the merging, identical interactions are identified across the multiple instances of the cell. The results of the subtracting are used to generate a virtual hierarchical layer identical (VHLi) which aids in the simulation and verification of the chip.